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biography |
b.
28 May 1981, Bedford, New York City, USA. Green began exorcising his songs
onto four-track tape at the age of 12, eventually forming anti-folk favourites
the Moldy Peaches (with, allegedly, one-time baby-sitter Kimya Dawson),
for whom he would regularly appear on stage dressed in a Robin Hood costume.
Although unreleased until 2002, Green's self-titled debut album (aka Garfield,
in a version released with extra tracks) was actually recorded prior to
the Moldy Peaches first album. The album took its emotional resonance
from mildly abstract (and often amusing) songs that picked over the detritus
of a childhood that Green has said was less than idyllic. |
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This
sense of loss for childhood was accentuated by songs that seemed to scan
like nursery rhymes. Green's first "proper" studio album, Friends
Of Mine, backed Green's curious outsider songs with succinct, lush string
arrangements orchestrated by cellist Jane Scarpantoni, a sometime collaborator
of Lou Reed. Although aligned with anti-folk musicians, Green took overt
inspiration from artists such as Frank Sinatra and Chet Baker. Oddly,
the album included a paean to over emotive American singer Jessica Simpson
which asked: "Jessica Simpson/Where has your love gone?/It's not
in your music, no" ("Jessica"). |